The sterotype for women I've encountered that's actually worse, is they're lying manipulators. At this same job I hired a girl who was ex-Army to work part time.
And you go on to give us one example. Do all the other women you've interacted with fit the stereotype too?
Stereotypes are not necessarily caricatures (at least sometimes). Rather, they are generalizations empirically induced from the observations of everyday life (dictionary notwithstanding). Of course, with any generalization, there are always exceptions. Despite the lack of complete or even seemingly consistent validity in a rather large (at least in one's mind) percent of the cases, if the generalization is indicative of a broader truth, in my opinion, than a stereotype is relevant and useful in trying to make sense of a situation.
Bollox. Saying something is a stereotype and that stereotyping is bad is not the same thing as saying that the 'stereotypical behaviour' never happens in the stereotyped group. However, what YOU appear to be saying is that stereotypes are born of general truths. This is the part at which I say bollox. Just because YOU (or anyone else) group a bunch of people together by race, sex, sexuality, religion it does not mean that similar behaviour amongst
individuals means anything in particular for the broader group.
In other words, you know what all women have in common? They're women. You know what all Jews have in common? They're Jewish. You know what all 2nd generation Pakistani taxi drivers in Leeds have in common? Yep, you guessed it, they are 2nd generation Pakistani taxi drivers. That's all.
Stereotypes suck. Whether we think we are being positive, or at least not negative, about stereotyping it only really does one thing - it uses a set of behaviours of another person or people to judge and define an individual. That can never be a good thing.
